Gallup released a report yesterday called the State of the American Consumer that said 62 percent of U.S. consumers believe Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. do not affect their purchase decisions. The polling company also found that 48 percent of millennial shoppers were uninfluenced by social media...

"The data are old," said Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter analyst, who also lamented the general direction of the research.

"You don't poll consumers whether advertisements or marketing make them buy stuff. People will always say, 'No, I am not influenced by advertising and marketing,'" Lieb said. "It's not an objective indicator, and that is why brands and agencies don't use poll data to judge the effectiveness of advertising and marketing. They use other calculations of [return on investment] such as purchase intent and actual conversions and sales. This is just asking consumers, 'Did you see Coke on Facebook and then go out and buy it?' Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of people will say 'no' to that. It's just deeply, deeply flawed."